In the context of a marital dissolution proceeding, is there (or should there be) an exception to mediation confidentiality (California Evidence Code section 1119) for financial disclosures “prepared for the purpose of” and used “in the course of … the mediation?” (Evidence Code section 1119). The Legislature believes so; On [Read More]
On February 2, 2017, the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) held its regular meeting in which it once again discussed mediation confidentiality. While the Commissioners seemingly did not make any great strides, at the same time, they did. I make this contradictory statement because at its September 2016 meeting, the [Read More]
Once again, the California Legislature was hard at work in 2016 passing 893 laws, most of which went into effect on New Year’s Day, 2017. While most of them are probably relevant addressing critical issues, there are a few that provide wonderment, invoking the question, “why?” and “what is the [Read More]
On December 1, 2016, The California Law Revision Commission (“CLRC”) met once again to discuss its Study K-402-Relationship Between Mediation Confidentiality and Attorney Malpractice and Other Misconduct.  In each of its meetings in and after August 2016, the CLRC decided to create the exception and made other recommendations on this [Read More]
Where we stand on mediation confidentiality, both in California since the Cassel decision and in the Ninth Circuit Originally published in The Advocate, August 2016 Issue. Download the PDF Version of the Article Here (PDF, 250Kb) Phyllis Pollack. Photograph by Jonah Light During the past year, there [Read More]
On July 22, 2016, the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) held its meeting to discuss, among other topics, mediation confidentiality. In preparation for the meeting, Chief Deputy Counsel Barbara Gaal prepared memoranda addressing the use of Preliminary In Camera Filtering processes (Memo 2016-38 and First Supplement to Memo 2016-38) and [Read More]
On June 1, 2016, the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) held its meeting in Sacramento and, as in the past, took up mediation confidentiality as the last item on its agenda. It spent approximately 2 hours discussing the topic. Prior to the meeting, Staff Counsel issued 4 memoranda on the [Read More]
(Spoiler alert: This blog has nothing to do with mediation, today!) On April 25, 2016, a legislative analysis was issued regarding AB 2878 which is not only the dues bill but also possibly the mechanism by which to de unify the California State Bar into two parts; a regulatory function [Read More]
